Five Four Roses Single Barrels: The OBs

It’s really no secret that I love Four Roses Bourbon. They initially grabbed my attention when their social media person sent a note of encouragement to my wife on her first session of chemo a few years back. It meant a lot to her and we’ve had a soft spot in our hearts for the brand ever since. The fact that they also make kick-ass whiskey doesn’t hurt either. 

Ever since we first learned about the ten Four Roses recipes, my wife and I have wanted to sit down and try them all to see how they were different from one another. Well, after thinking about it for a few years, this year we decided it would be a good idea to buy a single barrel of each recipe. For Christmas. I bought her the five OBs and she got me the five OEs.

As you can tell, deep down, we are romantics. 

Last Saturday we finally started our project. We tasted our way through my wife’s Christmas present, spending a really nice afternoon tasting the five different OB bourbons. The results are below.

OBSK

Age: 12 years, 6 months

Label details: 60.9% ABV, Warehouse VE, Barrel 5-5D

Purchased at: Four Roses Cox’s Creek Gift Shop

Nose: Alcohol, first and formost. But under it, is a sweet caramel cookie.

Mouth: Sweet spiciness. Think warm cinnamon candy and brown sugar.

Finish: Sweet and spicy, with a surprising bit of fruitiness

Thoughts: This is all about sweet spiciness. But there are enough hints of other things to keep you interested. Things like that surprise fruitiness in the finish.

OBSQ

Age: 11 years, 4 months

Label details: 56.0% ABV, Warehouse BN, Barrel 22-2H

Purchased at: The Party Source

Nose: Caramel, cinnamon red hots, and a floral waxiness

Mouth: Floral with a hint of mint or menthol. This is spicy enough that a lovely tingle runs down your tongue as it moves back in the mouth.

Finish: Christmas cookie, menthol, hot though not burning.

Thoughts: Distinctive doesn’t begin to cover this. This is different than any bourbon I’ve had.

OBSV

Age: 10 years, 1 month

Label details: 55.1% ABV, Warehouse ME, Barrel 2-1F

Purchased at: The Party Source

Nose: Brown sugar, honey, vanilla, baking spices

Mouth: Creamy, fruity, and sweet vanilla/caramel

Finish: Sharp with a hint of bitterness. Mouth drying

Thoughts: I get why this recipe might be used as the “regular” release of single barrel, it is the most generic bourbon flavor of the batch. A tasty, tasty, generic.

OBSF

Age: 8 years, 1 month

Label details: 52.3% ABV, Warehouse HW, Barrel 29-4E

Purchased at: The Party Source

Nose: Bubble gum, oak, ginger

Mouth: Mint on the tip of the tongue, a sharp ginger spiciness, salty

Finish: Sharp, puckers the mouth with a warmth that settles in your chest.

Thoughts: Not sure if I cared for this one. It’s sharp and spicy. Maybe too sharp.

OBSO

Age: 10 years, 3 months

Label details: 54.9% ABV, Warehouse BN, Barrel 4-1M

Purchased at: The Party Source

Nose: Menthol, brown sugar, and baking spices

Mouth: warm, with nice body. Spiced cirtus punch.

Finish: cooling mint remains in the mouth while a nice warmth settles in your chest

Thoughts: This is exactly what I imagine when I imagine four Roses.

There were none of these I disliked. In fact, I was prepared to say that I was a big fan of all of them until I had the OBSF. That one I will need to spend a little more time with. Luckily, there is enough left in each bottle that we’ll be able to spend some time with all of them yet. 

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go celebrate Christmas again.

Double Blind Review: Evan Williams Bottled in Bond vs Old Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond

Evan Williams Bottled in Bond and Old Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond

It’s sometimes hard for those who only casually know me to believe that I am a frugal person. They’ll point to the fact that I have over 50 different whiskies (just in my office closet, unopened, that I paid for), as evidence of the fact that I am, in fact, the very opposite of a frugal person. 

But truth be told, I do not like wasting money. I don’t mind spending money, if the object is worthwhile or the price is obscenely discounted. But spending money without doing your research is just foolish. You may get lucky, but more often than not money will be wasted. 

Researching value. When it comes to bourbon, it often means looking below the top shelf. It can mean finding a liter of 100 proof bourbon for less than $20. But can it mean finding one for less than $15? 

I recently bought two very similar bourbons, Evan Williams Bottled in Bond and Old Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond. Both are produced by Heaven Hill. Both are 100 proof, bottled in bond. Heck, they are both even packaged in the same style glass bottle. The only differences from the outside are the name on the label and the fact that one costs 50% more than the other. 

To avoid price influence, we tasted these in a double blind format. I poured into glasses 1 and 2 and my wife moved them to spots A and B. I knew what bourbon was which number and my wife knew which number coresponded to which letter, but neither of us knew which bourbon coresponded to which letter. Then we sat down for a nice Sunday afternoon tasting.

Bourbon A:

Nose: Shoe leather, corn, dusty oak and a hint of caramel

Taste: Caramel corn and candied ginger

Finish: Long and sweet with a bit of charred oak

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Thoughts: Does it knock my socks off? No. But no matter which one this is, for under $20 per liter there is no reason to not always have this on your shelf. I like this one.

Bourbon B:

Nose: Dried corn, mint, dried grass or hay

Taste: Hot. Hot and harsh. Cinnamon red hots candy and dried corn

Finish: Long. More cinnamon candy which fades to a sour corn flavor.

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Thoughts: This is really hot. Cinnamon candy is predominant with a lot of grain flavors supporting it. Kinda meh here.

Bourbon A was my favorite and after the reveal, I learned that it was the Evan Williams Bottled in Bond. In this case, price really does make a difference. Though I was kind of hoping that the lower priced underdog would somehow pull it out, and that the extra 50% higehr price was just spent on all the marketing that the Evan Williams brand receives, I wasn’t really surprised. It does make it a little more palatable to know that that 50% works out to just around six bucks. 

For me, Evan Williams Bottled in Bond beat Old Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond hands down.

5 Bourbon Barrel Aged Stouts That Will Warm You Up

It’s February in Minnesota. It’s cold. It’s snowy. I had the feeling today as I drove to the dog park that I was driving through the photos you see of Northern Canada or Alaska. The ones where you are so far north the trees no longer grow and the towns are just a collection of buildings. The only colors are blue sky and white snow. There’s snow on the road, snow on the buildings, snow on the few plants you can still see peeking out. Six foot piles along the sides of every driveway. The debris from too few snow plows lining roads that are becoming increasingly narrow.

I guess they don’t call it Minnesnowta for nothing.

But there is good news. There is a cure for the deep-set chill of a Minnesota winter. Beer. Strong, dark beer. Beer that is chocolatey or wine-like. Beer so thick you might be forgiven for thinking that you are actually drinking bread. 

But, you might be asking yourself, this is a bourbon blog? Well, don’t you worry your pretty little head about that. The result of a barrel only being able to be used once to make bourbon is a lot of used barrels. Just because many of them go to Scotland or Canada to age their fine whiskies, doesn’t mean that all of them leave the country. There is a demand among small brewers for bourbon barrels to help age their beers as well. What follows are five beers that have been aged in bourbon barrels. And because it is the dead of winter, and we all need it, each of them are sweet, strong stouts. 

Each of these were poured in identical tulip shaped glasses and tasted one at a time over the course of a single day. I’m rating them with the 1-5 style rating I used in Untappd when I checked them in.

Brewers Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout

Style: American Imperial Stout

Brewery: Central Waters Brewing Company. Amherst, WI

Purchase Info: Purchased at Viking Liquor Barrel, Prior Lake, MN  

ABV: 9.5%

Initial Thoughts: Pours with a thick milk chocolate colored head.

Nose: Dark and fruity with wine-like qualities. After a bit that fades to be replaced with chocolatey cereal notes.

Mouth: Moderately thick mouthfeel with a good bit of carbonation. Fruity and sweet with a big hit of alcohol flavor. 

Final Thoughts: I could taste that this was a high ABV beer before I looked at it. The alcohol flavor was that strong. The more I tasted of this, the less I liked it. I don’t know that I would want more than one of these in a session. 

Rating: 3/5

Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Stout

Style: American Stout

Brewery: Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company, Lexington, KY

Purchase Info: Purchased at Liquor Barn, Lexington, KY  

ABV: 8%

Nose: Sour. Cooked cereal. Corn chips.

Mouth: Thin in the mouth. Nice carbonation. Nicely balanced sweetness and bitterness with hints of coffee and chocolate.

Final Thoughts: Balanced. Not heavy. Unlike many stouts, I could drink more than one of these in a session. Being a higher ABV beer, this is dangerously drinkable. 

Rating: 3.5/5

Wild Turkey Bourbon Barrel Stout

Style: Oatmeal Stout

Brewery: Anderson Valley Brewing Company, Booneville, CA

Purchase Info: Purchased at Casanova Liquors, Hudson, WI  

ABV: 6.9%

Initial Thoughts: Pours with a nice thick head.

Nose: Dark and fruity. Red wine. Then malty cereals

Mouth: Acidic. It bubbles and froths in the mouth as if it’s making more head on your tongue. finishes with acid bitterness and malt.

Final Thoughts: This barrel-aged stout is more acidic than most, almost a sour. I think this would be more refreshing on a hot summer day than most stouts due to that. 

Rating: 3.5/5

Bourbon Sidamo

Style: American Imperial Stout

Brewery: Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, Richmond, VA

Purchase Info: Purchased at Total Wine and More, Richmond, VA  

ABV: 10.3%

Initial Thoughts: Looks thick on pouring.

Nose: Sweet maltiness that fades quickly. Chocolate.

Mouth: Thick. Initially chocolatey. Finishes wine-like with an alcohol sharpness.

Final Thoughts: This proves that aging doesn’t always work . This doesn’t taste aged, it tastes old. I’d like to try the non-barrel aged version of this to see how it compares. 

Rating: 2.5/5

Dark Hollow

Style: American Imperial Stout

Brewery: Blue Mountain Brewery, Afton, VA

Purchase Info: Purchased at Corks & Kegs, Richmond, VA  

ABV: 10%

Initial Thoughts: Pours with zero head.

Nose: Cereal maltiness initially. After sitting a bit: dark fruit.

Mouth:Nice and thick with very little carbonation. Sweet fruit balances bitterness with a hint of smoke.

Final Thoughts: Everything is working here. The fruity flavors balance the bitterness with just the right hint of smoke. High ABV but drinkable, with no alcohol flavor. As I initially stated when I first tasted it: “This might be the best beer I’ve ever had. It’s at least in the conversation.”

Rating: 5/5

Beer is an amazingly adaptable drink. It is highly influenced by your glassware and what you serve it with. Wine flavors when imbibed on its own might give way to chocolate flavors when served with food. The Central Waters one did that with pizza after the tasting was done. If you just take a sip, you might like it better than if you are spending time with it. The Hardywood did that for me as I tried to finalize my rankings. Ultimately what you like is highly influenced by how, where and with whom you drink it. On a cold, snowy night in Minnesota, all of these are good enough to warm you up.

A Review of Two Different Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage, 2003

There are a ton of bourbon brands on the market. But as we know, unless you are dealing with a craft distiller (that actually distills their own product) almost all of those brands are created by just a handful of distilleries in Kentucky and Indiana. Most of them with just a couple of mashbills or recipes each. 

So how is it that they all end up tasting so different? How does Knob Creek taste so much different than Jim Beam Black? How is it that Evan Williams Bottled in Bond is easy drinking and Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond is so hot? One answer? Barrel selection. Sometimes a barrel tastes like Henry McKenna and sometimes it’s Evan Williams. 

Bourbon is a natural product. It’s affected by it’s environment. Where was the warehouse it was aged in? What side was it on? North? South? Was it high up in the warehouse where the temperature swings are greater? Did we have a spell of really hot summers or really cold winters? The list can, and does, go on and on. 

But these are big brands. Your average consumer doesn’t want to know that the Evan Williams comes from this barrel or that. They just want to know that it tastes like the last bottle of Evan Williams that they bought. Because they like it. Thank goodness for what Four Roses calls “mingling.” You see if you want the next batch of bourbon to taste as much like that last one as possible, you just dump in enough barrels until it all averages out and pretty much does.

But what if you want something just a little different than last time? Or what if you are just curious what different barrels taste like, one to the next? Well, then you pick up a single barrel product. If you want to make it more interesting, pick up two. Preferably from different barrels. Because a single barrel bourbon is just what it says: the product of one barrel. Theoretically, they all taste slightly different. 

I’ve bought a lot of single barrel products in the past. But until now, I’ve never had two of the same open at the same time. Last Saturday I was having lunch and doing a sample swap with a friend, DP. He’d done a review of the Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage 2003 over at his blog, Whiskey Detectives, and didn’t care for it. I mentioned that I normally like those, so he was nice enough to throw the rest of the bottle into the swap. So that left me with two open bottles of this bourbon from two different barrels. What is a guy to do, but to taste them side by side to see just how different they are?

I’m reviewing barrel number 16 (barreled on 9-8-03 and bottled on 12-12-12) and barrel number 642 (barreled on 2-11-03 and bottled on 7-30-13).

Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage 2003

Nose: 

642: This starts floral, but after a bit of time in the glass it transitions to a strong cherry and chocolate scent, like the cheap chocolate covered cherry cordials you find at christmas.

16: This starts remarkably similar to the other bottle. After a bit of time though this is still very floral with only hints of the chocolate and cherries of 642.

Mouth: 

642: Sharp and vegetal at first. After a bit it settles down though and brings out more of a traditional sweet vanilla/caramel/spice bourbon flavor. 

16: This also starts vegetal, but somewhere along the way, it turns itself into a florist’s shop. It’s almost perfume-like. 

Finish:

642: Decent length heat that fades to a nice bitterness

16: Still floral. Still perfumey. Not as hot as 642.

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Thoughts: In my opinion, neither of these are as good as I remember previous releases to be. They both hit me with a sharpness I didn’t expect and that I found it hard to get past. Barrel 16, which I bought as a birthday present to myself was like drinking perfume. I just couldn’t get behind it. Barrel 642 from my friend DP was better. It was sweeter and had a nicer finish. All that said, if you handed me one without the other, they are similar enough that I wouldn’t know which you had handed me. And in my opinion, that’s not a good thing. I wanted to like these. I thought I would, but I don’t.

Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour: Old Pogue Distillery & Five Fathers Pure Malt Rye

A word of advice. Do not try to visit the Old Pogue distillery if you are running late. Maysville is farther away from anywhere than a map would lead you to believe. And once you get there, you realize that the your GPS has taken you to the exit, not the entrance. (The entrance is around back, turn on the road just before you get there.) But if you plan a little extra time, you will be rewarded with a pleasant drive through the country, an historic small town and a beautiful distillery on a hill. A very steep hill. With switchbacks. 

I on the other hand did not plan enough extra time. I had set up my tour at 10 am and parked the car at 9:59 am. I was almost late, or as I like to call it: on-time. All of the tour takers met in the gift shop. We signed in and the tour started. 

The first stop was the house. This is a lovely old home that used to house the Pogue family. Now, according to our tour guide/distiller, it gets rented out for weddings and events. We wandered around inside, listening to our host tell the family history and looking at the old bottles and ads that line the mantle and walls. I love old ads, so it was a real treat for me.

After the house, it was back across the driveway and into the distillery. The distillery is the back room of what I had originally thought was the gift shop. I see why you need to sign up for a tour. It gets a little cramped as everyone tries to get a look. The space is little, but seems to do the job. 

After everyone cycles through the distillery it is time for the tasting. We tasted Old Pogue Bourbon and Five Fathers Pure Malt Rye Whisky. I’ve already stated that I like the Old Pogue bourbon. I wasn’t quite expecting what I got with the Five Fathers though. It was interesting enough that I needed to pick up a bottle and spend a little more time with it. 

All in all, I highly recommend setting up a tour and stopping off. It’s a short tour. But the guide was nice, the history is very interesting, and the drive was pretty. What more can you ask for, really?

Five Fathers Pure Malt Rye Whisky

Nose: Grain/silage on top. Some black pepper lives under that.

Mouth: At 110° proof (55% ABV) it's understandable that this leads with a tingle. This is followed closely by a big sweet grain flavor. Bringing back the black pepper as it moves back. Mouthfeel is thick and almost velvety. 

Finish: Long and a little bitter with some black pepper spice, but not too hot.

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Thoughts: This was unlike any whiskey I've ever had before. It had elements of your typical rye, but also had similarities to malts that I've had. It was certainly young, but that didn't seem hurt it. It was very interesting and I'm very glad I bought it, but I'm pretty sure I won't find myself reaching for it very often. It's just not to my tastes.

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Town Branch Distillery

I’ll admit it. I had a bad taste in my mouth when I visited Town Branch. I couldn’t quite figure out why they were part of the main Kentucky Bourbon Trail when they just started making whiskey. In my mind, they should have been part of the Craft Tour. Small shop, limited distribution, product that wasn’t quite there as far as I was concerned. But they are part of a much bigger company, so what do I know?

I’d tried the Town Branch Bourbon when I was at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival last. It was the year after they became part of the Trail. I figured that if they were part of this collective marketing alliance, they must be ok. I mean, if you’re the new guy, and you put yourself among all those logos, you’re borrowing their goodwill. And, if—by extention—you suck, you are using up a bit of that goodwill. Spending it and it can never be recovered. So I figured it must be, at least, ok. I tried it…it wasn’t. It was terrible. It became the first bourbon that I actually disliked. I couldn’t find one nice thing to say about it.

I do the Kentucky Bourbon Trail passport program because I like getting the T-shirt and because I would probably be stopping at most of these places anyway as I travel through Kentucky. I like T-shirts. It was because I want to get the T-shirt again that I decided that I needed to give Town Branch another chance. Plus, my wife likes their beer. And I was starting to belive that the sample I’d had a year and a half previously must have had something wrong with it. Or maybe the food I’d been eating screwed up my palate. In any case, it was time to try again.

So I walk in and pay the $7 each to take the tour. As part of the tour, you get 4 tasting tickets. Each ticket is worth one sample. You’ll need to employ a little strategy here. You will only get to try half of the items they offer for sample. They have 5 beers and 3 spirits. I used three of mine on the beers and one on the spirits. My wife did two and two.

As we waited for the tour we stood in the gift shop. It’s a very pretty shop. They made it up to look like a Dublin street scene. While we waited, I heard the guy working behind the counter council a few other soon-to-be tour takers to give Wild Turkey and Four Roses a miss. I was shocked, but seeing as the secret that is Four Roses has been leaked, I’m ok that there won’t be four more people in the competition to get their hands on some.

Soon enough the tour starts and as is standard in a Bourbon Trail tour, we watched a video. After the video we were led across the road to see the brewery portion of the tour. One thing I liked about the tour is that this is both a working brewery and a working distillery that makes both bourbon and malt whiskey. In the brewery portion, you get to learn about the beer making process from start to finish, including the ancient bottling machine (which was pretty cool to see). The other thing you get to learn about is the pre-distilling portion of the malt whiskey process. It uses basically the same ingredients and the same equipment. It just gets piped across the street to the still instead of being hopped and bottled. Then it’s on to the samples. I tried the Kentucky Ale, the Kentucky Kölsch, and the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Stout. 

After the brewery, we walk back across the street into the distillery portion. The first thing you see is a large stack of Woodford Reserve barrels. I thought this a bit odd at first until I realized that one of this company’s most famous products is a bourbon barrel-aged beer. All of a sudden, it made sense. They’ve been making the beer a lot longer than they’ve been making whisky. After the tour guide shows us around the bottling area we moved into the bourbon fermenting area and still room.

The bourbon fermenting area and still room has been written about a lot. And with good reason. This is a beautiful room. Rough stone, floor to ceiling glass walls and stills displayed as the showpieces they are. It really is a pretty space. 

Then came the spirit tasting. I gave the bourbon another try while my wife tried the Pierce Lyons Reserve and the Bluegrass Sundown. Pierce Lyons Reserve is a malt whiskey and the Bluegrass Sundown is a coffee liqueur made using bourbon. I can’t really say how good the PLR was as I don’t have much to compare it to. But it didn’t make me want to dump it out. The coffee liqueur was served by making it into a miniature Irish Coffee style drink. Quite tasty. The Town Branch bourbon…well this is normally where I would do tasting notes. I’m not doing that because I couldn’t bring myself to buy an entire bottle for one tasting. I knew I’d have to figure out what to do with it later since I wouldn’t want to drink it. In place of a formal tasting note, I’ll quote a tweet that I published after giving it another try:

I disliked the bourbon as you can see. My thoughts on their bourbon aside, you should probably give this place a look. I liked the tour quite a bit. Some of the beer is quite good. I picked up a four-pack of the barrel-aged stout to bring home with me after I visited. People, including my wife, seem to love the barrel-aged ale (I find it too sweet). The Kölsch is tasty enough. The coffee liqueur is pretty good too. The tour guide was entertaining. And it really is a show-piece of a stop. And if all that doesn’t get you, there’s always the free T-shirt it will help you earn.

Some thoughts about ethics and my rules.

There has been a lot of talk about ethics in the whiskey community lately. And it has come to my attention that I have never plainly stated the ethics policies I use in running BourbonGuy.com. Here they are and the reasons for them. A permanent, and continually updated, version without the reasons will be posted for all to see over in main navigation.

I do not accept advertising. 
I have three reasons for this:

  1. I believe that advertising that would be relevant to my audience may come to subtly influence the content. Maybe not at first, but eventually. Maybe I choose to write one story instead of another. Or I try to write something bad in less bad terms. All to keep the money flowing. I don’t know for certain that it would happen, but if I’m not tempted, I’ll never have to find out. 
  2. I believe that advertising that is not relevant to my audience will annoy them. I don’t want that either. 
  3. Advertising will mess up the design of my site. I like it, I worked hard on it. I don’t want it cluttered up.

I will not allow a comment that disparages women, men, minority groups, or homosexuals (or anyone else for that matter). I will not allow xenophobic or racist comments on the site.
The world is filled with hate. I don’t like it. I want a little safe haven from it. This is my site, if you want to speak ill of someone, go have your free speech somewhere else.

I try to buy everything I review/I seldom accept review samples.
While free stuff doesn’t always influence the reviews. It almost always influences how people perceive the reviews. I want to be honest. I want people to trust that I am telling the truth. See below.

If I make an exception to the sample policy, I will disclose it at the beginning of the article.
“Of course you think that’s the best bourbon out there, they gave it to you for free!” I never want to have to hear this. Trust. It’s important. Plus I like not being fined by the government.

There are spirits industry people who I consider friends. If I ever review one of their products, I will disclose that fact at the beginning of the article. 
I will only review one of their products if I truly enjoy the product and think the audience will too. Yes, I want my friends to do well and they may be how I learned of a product. They will not, however, influence if I review something or not.

When I visit a distillery or whiskey event, I pay for my ticket and take the same tours everyone else can. If this is ever not the case, I will disclose that fact at the beginning of the article.
This is not an item that has come up. If the site continues to grow, it might. I take the normal tour because I’m a normal guy. Plus from an editorial standpoint, how can I tell you what the tour/event is like, or if you should go on/to it, if I’ve not done the one the reader will do? If I ever get the opportunity to do a “Media Event” or “Sneak Peak”, I will probably do so, but will disclose that fact. 

Beyond the sample policy above, I do not accept trips, gifts, or compensation in return for posts or reviews.
This is a final catchall. Just don’t offer me things for the blog. Make me aware of them and let me buy them myself? Sure.

These are the guidelines I’ve worked under since starting BourbonGuy.com. They are now out in the open and official. As things come up or I think of more, I will add it to the permanent list in the navigation. 

If you have any questions, click the contact icons to get a hold of me via email or your favorite social medium.

Battle of the Bigs: Head-to-head Review of Jim Beam and Jack Daniels

Today the internets are all abuzz with the news that Beam, Inc of Deerfield, IL was purchased by the Japanese company Suntory. On twitter there is shock, on Facebook there’s anger, racial slurs and xenophobia in general. Everyone has an opinion. Me? My thoughts on the matter are really boring. I’m generally apathetic as to which multinational conglomerate owns the distillery where the whiskey I’m drinking is produced. Or where they call home. Or where their stock is traded. I know bourbon jobs have to stay in the US, so ultimately I don’t really care.

But in the spirit of the news of one of America’s own moving to Japan (not really) I decided to do a head-to-head that I’d been thinking of for a while. Japan’s Jim Beam (not really) versus the local boy Jack Daniels. 

I’d been thinking of this, not because either of these end up on my shelf at home very often, but because I travel a lot. And when I’m sitting in a hotel bar somewhere, I’ll as likely as not be faced with the choice between these two with maybe a Maker’s thrown in for good measure. When faced with this prospect, I’ve often made a run to the local liquor store to try to pick up a replacement or gone without. But maybe, just maybe there is something that I am missing. I mean these are the two biggest bourbons* in the world, there has to be something to them.

Right?

Jim Beam (White Label)

Nose: Initially it’s just like standing in the Jim Beam warehouse that they let you go in while visiting the distillery. Oak, alcohol and dust. After a bit of teasing, there is some wet rock, a floral note and a bit of crisp sour apple. 

Mouth: Thin. Watered down tasting. Past that: corn, a little vanilla, pencil shavings and more sourness. 

Finish: Gentle is the only word for this. Lingering Corn. 

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Thoughts: I’m not a fan of this one. The thin mouthfeel and sour flavor are off-putting to me. That said, I’ve had decent cocktails made with this so it has it’s place. It’s just not in my glass. Maybe it’s in yours?

Jack Daniels Old No. 7

Nose: The nose on this one is really quite nice. Cherry, vanilla, a hint of chocolate. It reminds me of the chocolate covered cherry cordials you can buy at Christmas.

Mouth: Dusty, dried corn and some vanilla

Finish: A gentle burn with more corn and a lingering dusty bitterness.

Thoughts: Disappointing. The palate does not live up to the nose. But unlike Jim Beam, I can see why it’s popular. This is gentle and sweet enough to appeal to the new or non-whiskey drinker. And since many people never move beyond the first thing they fall in love with, I can see it. Will it have a permanent home on my shelf? No. But that’s not because it’s bad, it’s just meh.

Overall: If forced to choose between Jack and Jim neat, I’d go Jack. But that said, I doubt I’ll ever be buying either of them for that reason (bars almost always have one halfway decent beer on tap). And as with all whiskey reviews, your milage may vary. Try it yourself. Maybe you’ll love them. 

 

*Jack Daniel’s Sour Mash Tennessee Whiskey meets all the legal requirements of bourbon and could be called bourbon if they chose to. So for the sake of stirring the pot, for this post, I choose to call it bourbon. Because sometimes I like to see people who care way too much get upset.